Well, what a year 2022 has been! Ups, downs, certainties, uncertainties, not to mention 3 Prime Ministers.
Again, all sales were held online only, which will remain the case for the foreseeable future.
With the year coming to an end, we have taken time to reflect:
With some 32,949 lots on offer across 18 sales we definitely had something for everyone.
The first auction of the year was the February sale of Contractors Plant and it offered 2 of the highest value lots we have sold; 2 Liebherr 974 excavators, selling well past the estimates and realizing more than £225,000 for the pair. Just a week later we held the first agricultural sale of 2022.
Onto March with 2 sales in 2 days, the first on instruction of Hunts Hardware on retirement and secondly our annual auction of Grounds Maintenance Equipment.
There was also a sale on behalf of Barclay Farms the star of the show there being a 2019 John Deere 6250R ultimate achieving a price of £120,000.
April kicked off with the 2nd of our 6 annual Contractors Plant Auctions – rings 1 and 2 offering similar quantities to that of February, but ring 3 was significantly quieter, however, despite the lower number of machines, trade was definitely better. A Kubota U50-5 with 400 hours on the clock made more than the vendor had paid for the machine the previous year – lead times for new machines accounting for prices holding up.
We held an online sale in May and then onto the 3rd plant sale – already heading into the middle of the year. A large package of Firefly Hybrid generators arriving from Speedy sold above expectation and numbers were also higher than the April sale to 719 lots in ring 3 and a further 3159 across rings 1 and 2.
A further 2 farm sales in July offered 696 lots between them and it was quickly back to business in Reading with the August plant sale looming. Trade dipped slightly (in stark opposition to temperatures which soared into the high 30’s) probably due to the holiday period or uncertainty around what was going on at Westminster, nevertheless a 2014 Scania plant lorry with crane topped the price list at £34,250.
Other significant figures included a 2017 Hitachi ZX85 at £33,000 and a 2018 Manitou MT624 at £31,000.
September brought another farm sale – a 2011 Kubota KX057 with only 545 hours on the clock being the standout amongst the 292 lots on offer.
October plant sale saw a record number of entries, some 4,746 lots going under the online hammer, and trade up on the August auction. A 2015 Manitou MT625 was one of the more fiercely fought over lots, 106 bids, ending up at £28,200.
Two weeks later saw an auction on instruction of D & P Lovell with over 800 lots available.
Into November and December, 3 online sales plus our December plant auction kept the plant department very busy indeed, especially as the 3 online sales were away from our Reading base, and 2 of them were farm sales which saw Truman, Richard and Carl wading around in mud up to their ankles and pulling machines out of mud where they had sunk up to their axles!
The first farm sale offered 121 lots and then another with a John Deere 4955 making £35,250. Next came 4 days of sales in a row - N J Doyne Construction was first up with 991 lots, then our 3 days of Reading plant sales saw October’s record entry smashed with 4912 lots on offer over the 3 rings.
With Christmas fast approaching the plant department at T&S would like to thank all vendors and buyers, whether consigning 1 drill or buying lorry loads of excavators.
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and look forward to next year being just as busy.
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